The German psychologist Erich Fromm said that social character includes a set of character traits. Most of the members of this social group have these traits. The totality of such traits is the result of common experiences and a common way of life.
The psychologist also spoke on the issue of human character. He believed that in the case when the character of the individual more or less coincides with the social character, then following his dominant aspirations, he will do everything necessary and desirable in the specific social conditions of his culture.
Social changes can occur when the same changes occur in social conditions. Such conditions may be the emergence of new needs and anxieties that generate new ideas. These ideas can strengthen and strengthen the new social character, in addition, they direct human activity in a new direction.
Types of social characters according to E. Fromm. Unfruitful Orientations
Unfruitful orientation includes such orientations as:
- receptive;
- exploitative;
- money-grubbing;
- market
Receptive Orientation
A person of this type represents the source of all blessings, which lies outside. In his opinion, the only way to get what you want is to get it from an external source.
Focusing on this, the problem of love is that a person wants to be loved, while not loving himself. This type chooses the same strategy in the field of intelligence: he is ready to perceive ideas, but not to create them. The first thought of the receptively oriented type is to find someone who will provide him with the information he needs, instead of looking for it himself.
If people are religious, then they expect everything from God, without showing their own activity. They need people who can provide them with security, give them the necessary benefits. Because of this, they become dependent on others. When such people are presented to themselves, they have a sense of loss. This is due to the inability to do anything without help;
Exploiter Orientation
This type of people, as mentioned earlier, believe that all the necessary goods are in external environment and nothing can be created by yourself. At the same time, they try to get what they want by force, cunning, or even take it from others, because they do not believe that something can be received as a gift.
In the field of love, he is interested only in those persons who can be taken away or taken away from others. They also do not create ideas, but steal them as plagiarism or in the form of a paraphrase of ideas that someone has already expressed before them.
Things that belong to someone seem better to people with an exploitative orientation than what they can create or already have. They try to use and exploit everyone, they want to squeeze something out of everyone.
Their attitude is characterized by hostility and manipulativeness. Each person for them is an object of exploitation, he is evaluated according to the degree of his usefulness. In relation to other people, they behave cynically, are particularly suspicious, show hidden or obvious hostility, such people are envious and jealous.
Possessive Orientation
People belonging to this type believe that they cannot do something new from the outside world, so they talk about the need to preserve and save what they have. They are behind a kind of protective wall, they try to bring as much as possible into their shelter and give as little as possible out of it.
In the realm of love, their partners are completely in control, and play the role of things that belong only to people of an acquisitive orientation. The same applies to the realm of things. Such people are distinguished by greed, over-economy and over-accuracy. The possessor has thoughts, memories, feelings in a constant order, he cannot stand if things are not in their place, and will automatically put them in order;
Market Orientation
People of this type advocate that success depends on the ability of a person to sell himself in the market from an attractive side. In other words, a person perceives himself as a commodity. It competes with many others. This type of people are not interested in their lives, but in how to become a salable commodity.
To do this, you need to know what type of personality is in high demand. The image of the desired personality can be formed by fashion, cinema. This image is the goal of any market type person. For such a person, the vicissitudes of the market are the measure of values, as a result, correct ideas about feelings, dignity and self-respect are destroyed.
In a situation where a person has to make his way to success all the time, and any failure becomes a severe threat to his self-esteem, the result will be a feeling of helplessness, insecurity and inferiority.
Fruitful Orientation
This orientation acts as the goal of human development. E. Fromm contrasts it with the types of character described above. Fruitfulness is understood as a situation when a person has a healthy mature personality. With the help of his mind, he goes deep into the phenomena, and tries to know their essence.
This type of people use their love as a means by which they are able to destroy the wall that separates one person from another. He understands himself, his purpose, which distinguishes him from other people and makes him who he is, strives to become that.
His aspirations are aimed at the formation of the personality that he can potentially become, while he uses and develops all his strengths, abilities and capabilities. Love is a fruitful form of relationship to others and to oneself.
A fruitful orientation involves responsibility, care, respect, and knowledge. In addition, a person with this orientation wants the other person to grow and develop as well. Love for another person is manifested in caring for him, in a sense of responsibility for his life.
At the same time, concern for the life of another is manifested not only in his physical existence, but in the development of all his human forces. Respect for a person is tantamount to the ability to see him as he is, to understand his uniqueness and individuality. In the process of fruitful thinking, a person is able to see the object as it really is, and not as the thinker would like.
The Russian psychologist B. S. Bratus proposed his own typological model of social characters. In it, he wrote that an important feature that characterizes a person is the typical, predominant way for her to relate to another person, other people and herself. Considering this main factor, B. S. Bratus identifies several levels in the structure of personality:
Levels in the structure of personality according to B. S. Bratus. egocentric level
The egocentric level can be defined by the predominant desire only for one's own convenience, benefit and prestige. Relationships with others are characterized as purely consumeristic. They are built depending on whether the other person is able to help personal success or not, what benefits he can bring.
In such a relationship, the other person acts as a thing. Personal happiness and well-being is most important, regardless of whether others are happy or unhappy.
group-centric level
At this level, a person defines himself according to any of the groups. Relationships are built based on whether people are in the same group.
If the other person belongs to a particular group, then he is valuable, but not in himself, not as a separate person. His value is manifested only in his belonging to a group, and whether he is worthy of pity, respect, indulgence, forgiveness, love, depending on his belonging.
In the case when a person is not a member of this group, feelings and the corresponding attitude do not apply to him. Supporters of this level can divide people into "us" and "them". Good and happiness are associated with the prosperity of the group with which a person identifies himself. He cannot be happy if his group suffers misfortune.
Prosocial (humanistic) level
At this level, people value others, uphold and recognize equal rights, duties and freedoms. Main principle This level is "do unto others as you would like to be done unto you".
The main aspiration of the pro-social (humanistic) level is the achievement of results that can bring benefit not only to the individual himself, but also to other people, to humanity as a whole.
Spiritual (eschatological) level
Supporters on this level consider a person to be an eternally living being, they are sure that nothing ends after earthly life, they associate human life with the spiritual world.
At this level, a person's relationship with God can be resolved, there is a sense of connection with God and the idea of happiness as service and connection with him.
Every personality type has all four levels. At some point, one of the levels defeats the other levels, based on a certain situation.
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Along with individual traits and qualities of character, one can distinguish general way of adapting the individual to social environment — social type human nature. When determining the type of character, we highlight that essential and similar in the characters of individual people, which determines the general style of their life.
On this basis, we distinguish the following types of characters.
Harmoniously holistic type characterized by stability of relationships and at the same time high adaptability to environment. A person with this type of character has no internal conflicts, his desires coincide with what he does. This is a sociable, strong-willed, principled person. People with a harmoniously holistic character maintain a system of their own values in all difficult circumstances of life. This is a type of strong-willed fighter for his ideals and principles. Not opportunism, but changing reality in accordance with their ideals - this is the way these people adapt.
The type is internally conflicting, but outwardly harmonically consistent with the environment characterized by inconsistency between internal motives and external behavior, which, in accordance with the requirements of the environment, is carried out with great tension.
A person with this type of character is prone to impulsive actions, but they are constantly restrained by volitional efforts. The system of his relations is stable, but the communicative properties are not sufficiently developed.
People of this type have a complex system of correlating their value orientation with the conditions of reality. These people overcome discord with the outside world through internal tactical restructuring, psychological protection, devaluing current events that do not fit into their value system, maintaining the basic values of the individual, but not actively trying to change external circumstances. This is the type of a wise contemplator detached from the daily struggle.
Conflict type with reduced adaptation characterized by conflict between emotional urges and social responsibilities, impulsiveness, the predominance of negative emotions, underdevelopment of communicative properties, insufficient structured self-awareness. Separate connections with the world in people of this type are not included in any general behavioral system. The life of such people passes according to a simplified scheme: their changing needs should, in their own opinion, be immediately satisfied without much effort.
The psyche of such individuals is not burdened with great experience, they do not care about the future either. They are not hardened in the struggle for existence. In childhood, they, as a rule, were subjected to hyper-care, were surrounded by excessive care of the people around them. They are characterized by infantilism, inability to overcome life's difficulties. The main mechanism of their life activity is to receive pleasure (hedonism). People of this type perceive all difficult situations as acute conflicts and resort to unconscious psychological pseudo-protection - a distorted reflection of reality (whims, stubbornness, withdrawal into the world of dreams and fruitless dreams).
Variable type testifies to external adaptability to the environment as a result of the instability of positions, unscrupulousness, the low level of personality development, the lack of a stable general way of behavior.
Spinelessness, constant opportunism - a surrogate for the plasticity of behavior; it should not be confused with a genuine plasticity of behavior, with the ability to take into account circumstances in order to achieve basic goals, without deviating from social norms and requirements. People of this type are simplistic inner peace; their struggle for existence is straightforward. They do not show doubts in achieving utilitarian goals, they do not have special internal restrictions. They know only one kind of obstacle - external. Reality puzzles them only with questions of a "technical" nature - how to achieve, how to achieve the greatest possible number of momentary benefits. This is the type of "realists": they try to satisfy their needs as fully as possible within the limits of really existing possibilities. Adaptation, adjusting, adjusting the inner world to external circumstances - such is the general way of adapting these people.
The typological characterology can also be based on leading orientation of personality. Thus, the famous German philosopher and psychologist E. Spranger (1882-1963) distinguishes the following types of personality according to their leading orientation.
scientific man
In its pure form, he knows only one passion - a passion for a problem, a question that leads to explanation, establishing connections, theorizing. His experiences are detached from real life: he can despair of the impossibility of knowing, rejoice because of a purely theoretical discovery. He exhausts himself as a psychological being for the sake of generating a purely ideal world of regular connections. For him, only the purity of the methods of cognition has value - the truth at any cost. The world for him is an endless production of entities and a system of dependency relations. In its most natural and purest form, this form of life is embodied in professional scientists, who, as a rule, come to the formulation of their life tasks as a result of free interest. But the preliminary stages of this kind of spiritual organization are also found regardless of professional affiliation, and, perhaps, the structural features of the type come out much more clearly on them than in great scientists, who are often very complex natures.
economic man
This is not necessarily a person associated with production. The most important thing is that the main motive that determines the various spheres of the individual and the nature of her being is the motive of utility.
In general, an economic man is one who, in all life relationships, puts utility in the first place. For him, everything becomes a means of maintaining life, the struggle for existence and the best arrangement of his life. He saves material, effort, time - if only to get the most out of it. It would be more accurate to call him a practical man, since the entire field of technology is connected with the concept of economics. The meaning of his actions is not in the activity itself, but in its useful effect.
aesthetic person
Lust is not characteristic of purely aesthetic behavior. Direct contact with the world is always painful, associated with the struggle for existence. But there is a second world where pain is as sweet as joy, suffering is as spiritualized as joy: this is the world of fantasy. We know that there are people who surround themselves with such fantasies, through which they perceive reality.
When considering the aesthetic type, we have in mind not so much artists who create material works, but people who create themselves, who have an internal structure of the aesthetic type.
social man
A special life form, which has been called social, arises when this need for self-denial for the sake of another becomes the leading life need.
Social orientation in the highest manifestation is love. It can be a fundamental feeling that applies to all life. But it can also be directed at a separate object or range of objects and at the same time not lose the character of the leading need that determines the entire individual being. The individual person becomes the object of love as the center of values. One can love another person because the value of truth, or beauty, or holiness is revealed in him. Akin to such love is the passionate desire to acquire the values of life that we already know. But the essence of love itself is even deeper: it remains something in itself, turned to another life for the sake of the values contained in this life. Conceptually defining what is ultimately indefinable, we can say that love discovers in another person - in one, several or many - potential bearers of certain values and finds the meaning of its own life in devotion to these people.
political man
A special case is when power itself becomes the main thing for a person.
Here we have a totality of attitude: self-affirmation, achievement of success, vitality, energy of being.
A political person strives for a high social status, and only then, as a leader, in the rays of glory does he feel in his place.
religious man
This is the one whose spiritual structure is constantly and entirely aimed at achieving the highest meaning of life, postulated by religion.
The behavior of religious people is dominated by an altruistic orientation. They see the highest meaning of their existence in the noble gratuitous service to people - in helping the injured, injured, crippled, weak, humiliated and lonely. The behavior of such people significantly exceeds the norm of social responsibility.
Religious dogmas are firmly introduced into the sphere of superconsciousness of a religious person, they are embraced by a complex intuitive mechanism - the mechanism of faith. The behavior of a religious person is modified - in his psyche ideas of goodness, love for a person begin to dominate. It is characterized by a desire for sinlessness, and its possible guilty behavior is reorganized through deep repentance and expiation of guilt by good deeds.
All major religious denominations of the world affirm spirituality, morality, the highest ideals of human existence, mobilize a person for a worthy passage of the earthly path, and postulate the immutable laws of human life among people.
The work was carried out within the framework of the research project template Project No. 383: "Workers in the industrial and scientific and technical spheres in a single-industry town (on the example of a sociological analysis of Togliatti)"
The social character is a complex, multifaceted and ambiguous phenomenon that affects the foundations of the social system and explains the behavior of various social groups, helping to predict their behavior in certain situations. The main difficulties associated with the consideration of the concept of social character are heterogeneous interpretations of the social character of a person, weak continuity of theoretical approaches associated with the concept's belonging to an interdisciplinary field of knowledge. Despite the variety of existing scientific works on this topic, most only partially affect the concept of the social nature of the individual. In science, there is still no unity in understanding this concept and the possibilities of its application in modern society, therefore, the interpretation of the concept of "social character" must be considered in conjunction with specific theories.
First of all, the social character is a very important part of the character of the individual, along with his individual character and natural traits, and closely interacts with them. The social character has stability and integrity, allows you to link people's behavior into a single characterological orientation, to identify its general orientation. “The social character includes both relatively stable, deep, unconscious character traits, and behavioral - more superficial, conscious. At the same time, unconscious traits manifest themselves more consistently and steadily, constituting the core of the social character and explaining social behavior personality.
The content of the social unconscious is "repressed" material, which is not individual, but common to most members of a given society. Such “repressed social material” includes human desires and aspirations that are incompatible with social requirements, they are expressed in such unproductive characteristics as sadism-masochism, thanatophilia, authoritarianism, destructiveness, narcissism, irrationalism. Conscious behavioral orientations include the orientation of the individual towards individualism, collectivism, economic behavior, the degree of political involvement, religious attitudes, labor orientations, and cultural values. Conscious and unconscious traits of a social character are formed in a personality within the framework of the structure of its needs, given to the personality "by nature" (i.e. the most fundamental), which include the relationship of the personality with other people, the attitude of the personality to material values, religious and spiritual values, to power, to work, socialization.
Thus, the structure of social character can be represented as interdependent concentric circles. The outer circle represents the existing socio-historical conditions that affect the content of the needs of the individual. This is followed by a circle of fundamental needs through which social character traits are manifested. Then - the most labile and dynamic part of the social character - behavioral traits. Finally, the central circle represents the most rooted characterological unconscious traits of the social character, as well as the degree of its fruitfulness.
Along with individual traits and qualities of character, one can distinguish a general way of adapting a person to a social environment-social personality type. When determining the type of character, that essential and similar in the characters of individual people is singled out, which determines the general style of their life.
The comparison of social character with other sociological concepts includes comparative analysis concepts of a social nature with such phenomena as national character, mentality, personality type, value orientation, attitude.
The difference between the concepts of social character and national character is the most controversial issue, however, they must be separated due to the expansion of social space beyond the national community in the context of globalization. The concept of "national character", that is, a historically established set of stable psychological traits of a nation that determines the habitual manner of behavior and the typical way of life of people in special territorial conditions, is based on the influence of the national environment on a person. While the concept of "social character" reflects the influence on a person of that era in which various nations and states coexist, and its content is revealed when studying the social and typical properties of people of a given era, regardless of their nationality.
“Very vague in science is also the concept of “mentality”, which is related to the social character. The mentality is a projection of society in the context of its history onto a person, while taking into account the personal and fundamental projection on society to a lesser extent, while the concept of a social character combines both components. The concept of a social character also correlates with the category of "personality type" generally recognized in science. If in the concept of "personality type" attention is focused on the embodiment in the individual public relations, then in the category of "social character" in organic unity, the fundamental nature of man, the social principle and the individual are manifested. The concept of “attitude” organically fits into the concept of a social character, while the complex of attitudes presupposes the emergence of a qualitatively new structure, the so-called “syndrome”, which forms one or another orientation of a social character.
Thus, the phenomenon of the social character of a person is fundamentally irreducible to any of the above concepts, however, they are interconnected and influence each other.
The concept of "social character" - in concepts developed within the framework of the psychoanalytic direction in sociology to explain the interaction between the individual and society, the influence of socio-economic and cultural factors on the formation of human character, the role of the psychological factor in the social process. Social character is a kind of integral unconscious structure that motivates the behavior of members of society and gives it, to one degree or another, a general direction and consistency. Thus, the social character performs important biological and social functions: it replaces a person's system of instincts, frees him from thinking about every action; allows the individual to act consistently, makes his behavior predictable; Concepts of social character arose on the basis of the dynamic concept of character developed by Freud, who distinguished between character and behavior.
The most influential concepts of a social nature were developed by E. Fromm and D. Riesman.
Erich Fromm proposes to consider as a link between the individual and society a certain type of social character, in which various conscious and unconscious attitudes are interconnected and which usually arises as a result of some kind of sociocultural shift.
Character, according to Fromm, acts as a substitute, a substitute for animal instincts. It is social in origin, but "built into" the personality and has a coercive power for it. Subject to the inclinations of character, people desire what society wants from them, hate what is contrary to its ideology. They maintain their sense of identity, rootedness, and other existential needs in a way that is beneficial to society. This maintains stability in human relationships, reliability in the fulfillment of their obligations. Society is more interested in making its members want to do what they have to do than in making them aware of what they are doing. The social character is based on an unconscious, irrational basis and serves as a kind of "driving belt" from society to the individual. It is a more effective and reliable means than moral duty or coercion.
Character as a tool social control depends little on the intellectual and moral development, educational level of the individual and provides a quick, "non-reasoning" response to situations of a certain type.
The social character of the individual, according to Fromm, is formed due to the experience of life in the conditions of one or another social system. “Freedom of initiative, democracy, the rule of law form an active, self-confident, disciplined and rationally thinking person. The totalitarian state brings up an authoritarian personality, which Fromm calls "sado-masochistic". This person is incapable of democratic equal cooperation and effectively operates only in the system of domination-submission. Of course, under any system, due to the diversity of initial temperaments and conditions of the microenvironment, personalities of various types are formed: “authoritarian”, “conformal”, “receptive-dependent”. However, characters that do not meet the requirements of the system are either destroyed or are on the periphery. public life» . The social character is a product of various ideologies and religions, in which worldview positions, life-sense attitudes and beliefs are fixed. Ideology is a tool for the ruling elite to control the masses and their moods.
Thus, human behavior in its most common and predictable aspects is determined, according to Fromm, by social character. The social character occupies an intermediate position in the motivational structure of the personality between the “outer” layer of social roles that change along with the change in status, and the “inner” layer of existential values, such as faith, love, hope, which are highly individualized and may not depend on any roles. , nor on character. The prevailing types of characters are formed under the influence of stable environmental factors, as a result of the entire "psychohistory" of the people.
E. Fromm draws attention to the following functional features of a social nature.
First, it plays a regulatory role in the structure of the psyche. Attitudes and orientations regulate the satisfaction of natural needs. A person can live in poverty, but not experience psychological discomfort, if the dominant attitudes of character are satisfied.
Secondly, social attitudes correspond to the hierarchy of social values. Vital energy community group or even an entire nation is "canalized", that is, discharged through certain "channels": work, war, prayer, love, festivities, party meetings. For the mass of people, the satisfaction of social attitudes is, according to Fromm, an urgent need. And if there are no channels of detente, then tension increases and a social explosion is likely.
Thirdly, the information function of a social nature is important, which includes not only emotional-volitional, but also cognitive elements. Those ideas are assimilated that reinforce existing beliefs and habits.
Social character theory explains the role of the "human factor" in social processes, predicts mass behavior and reveals intermediate links between the economy and ideology. Some types of the social character of the individual serve as a support for despotism or anarchy, contribute to the spiritual destruction of the individual, others give impetus to creative and revivalist movements.
E. Fromm, under the concept of social character, meant “the core of the character structure, common to most representatives of the same culture, as opposed to the individual character that distinguishes people belonging to the same culture from each other.
Regarding the social nature inherent in the middle of the 20th century, E. Fromm singled out the following features:
1) the transition from the accumulative orientation of the 19th century, based on the consumption of things in increasing quantities and the desire to have things, to a perceiving orientation, the goal of which is to constantly receive, acquire something new, constantly be surprised;
2) an alienated attitude to consumption that determines the ways in which free time is used;
3) the relationship of a person to his neighbor, as the relationship of two abstractions that use each other living machines, selfish interest;
4) a person's attitude to himself, based on market orientation: feeling like a thing that should find a successful application in the market;
5) routinization and ousting from human consciousness of the fundamental problems of human existence;
6) the main driving force of modern man is the need for exchange, which has become an end in itself and has penetrated from the economy into other spheres of life;
7) "balance" approach to human life - life is either "failure" or "success".
American sociological school David Riesman has focused more on the structural representation of social character. He considers the historical change in the social character, taking into account the most important social spheres - economic, political, cultural, demographic, social and psychological.
Riesman defines social character as follows: "It is the part of 'character' shared by significant social groups and, as many modern social scientists have defined, is the product of the life experiences of these groups. This understanding of social character allows us to speak about the character of classes, groups, countries and nations. I will use the term "mode of conformity" as a synonym for the term "social character".
Depending on the specifics of the conformity of members of these societies and the degree of population growth potential in them, D. Riesman proposed the following typology of the social nature of various societies:
1) Oriented-to-tradition. Society high potential population growth forms in its typical representatives a social character, conformity to which is achieved due to their tendency to follow tradition. This is a pre-industrial society associated with agriculture, hunting, fishing and mining. This society corresponds to a conservative type, its representatives are conformal, oriented towards traditions, established patterns of behavior in the clan, caste.
2) Self-oriented. A society of transitional population growth develops in its typical representatives a social character, conformity to which is achieved due to their tendency to acquire an internalized system of goals early in life. The life of society is connected with industrial production. This is how an “inwardly oriented” personality is created - strong, purposeful, enterprising, prone to innovation and change.
3) Other-oriented. A society of incipient decline in population shapes in its typical members a social character, conformity to which is achieved through their tendency to be receptive to the expectations and preferences of others. Society lives by trade, communications and services. An “outwardly oriented personality” is being formed, in which there is no strong independent “I”, especially the “super-I”; it is a standardized and impersonal figure, an object of manipulation and the result of alienation. In a personality of this type there is a desire for truly human manifestations, but the whole system of external influence interferes with it in this one.
D. Risman believed that all these types of characters coexist in modern society, but the specific weight and influence of each of them are different, they depend on economic, social, demographic factors. He examines social characters from the standpoint of liberal criticism directed against the bureaucracy, the consumer society; concerning different spheres of life - work, play, education, leisure, religion, power, freedom, and so on.
Robert Merton, from the point of view of structural functionalism, analyzing the theory of anomie (a situation of disharmony between cultural goals and institutional means to achieve them), evaluates not the behavior of the individual as a whole, but his behavior in a separate area: economics, politics, family, and so on.
Thus, the personality typology he created refers to social structure society and captures the socio-cultural influences:
1) "conformist" accepts both cultural goals and institutional means approved in society, and is a loyal member of society;
2) the "innovator" tries to achieve cultural goals by non-institutional means;
3) the "ritualist" accepts institutional means that he absolutizes, but ignores or forgets the goals to which he must strive with the help of these means;
4) the "isolated type" departs both from cultural, traditional goals and from the institutional means necessary to achieve them;
5) The "rebel" is indecisive about both means and cultural ends.
The most striking example of the main personality - the social character of a certain historical period, can serve as the theory of authoritarian personality, developed by the theorists of the Frankfurt sociological school. For the first time, the problem of a special, authoritarian type of social character was raised by E. Fromm, but further development this topic received in the writings of T. Adorno, M. Horkheimer and other representatives of the Frankfurt School.
In the work "Authoritarian Personality" the psychological aspects of this problem were subjected to a comprehensive study; the purpose of the study was to identify "elements of the personality of modern man that predispose him to reactions of hostility to racial and religious groups." The study demonstrated a stable correlation between racial and ethnic prejudice and certain deep personality traits that, in Horkheimer's words, form a "new anthropological type" of a person that arose in the 20th century - an authoritarian personality type.
1) conventionalism - following the traditions of an ordinary man in the street due to the lack of formation of values;
4) intraceptivity is hypersensitivity, soft-heartedness, sentimentality, its absence is manifested in intolerance for soft-heartedness, fantasies, etc. This is the result of a narrow framework of consciousness. A person is afraid of his own feelings and thoughts, that already weak values will “tear”. Its opposite feature is anti-intraceptiveness;
5) superstition and stereotyping - the tendency to shift responsibility to external forces and think in rigid categories;
6) "strength" and "power" - compensation for weakness by demonstrative force;
7) destructiveness and cynicism - perceived aggressiveness, expressed in disbelief in Constructive decisions, in the absence of faith in ideals;
8) excessive intolerance and hypocrisy in relation to sex;
9) projection - as the predominant defense mechanism.
Additional features: inability to admit guilt, the desire to view interpersonal relationships in terms of power, status, and not friendship and love, sadomasochism.
Russian scientist Boris Sergeevich Bratus created his own typological model psychological types personalities in Russian and Soviet cultures. “Based on the dominant way of relating to oneself and another person, several fundamental levels were identified in the structure of personality.
The first level is egocentric. It is determined by the predominant desire only for one's own convenience, profit, prestige.
The next, qualitatively different level is group-centric. A person who gravitates to this level identifies himself with some group and his attitude towards other people closely depends on whether these others are part of his group or not.
The next level we will call pro-social or humanistic. For a person who reaches this level, the attitude towards another is no longer determined by whether he belongs to a certain group or not. Behind each person, even if narrow-minded, not included in my group, is implied self-worth and equality in relation to rights, freedoms and duties.
However, above this high level there is another. It can be called spiritual or eschatological. At this stage, a person begins to realize and look at himself and the other not as finite and mortal beings, but as beings of a special kind, connected, similar, correlated with the spiritual world. As beings whose life does not end with the end of earthly life. In other words, this is the level within which the subjective relationship of a person with God is resolved, a personal formula for connection with Him is established.
B.S. Bratus believes that all four levels are present in one way or another, cohabitate in each and at some moments, at least in an episode, situationally wins one level, and at some another. However, it is quite possible to speak of some typical this person profile, typical aspiration.
So we have looked at various scientific approaches in the definition of the concept of "social character" and its functions, as well as well-known typologies of social characters in the sociological and socio-psychological mainstream. On the basis of these concepts and definitions, the following generalizing definition of the social character of a person can be distinguished - this is the core of the character structure, characteristic of most representatives of a given culture, reflecting the basic values of this culture and implementing constant pressure in the direction of a certain cultural model, which includes relatively stable, deep, unconscious character traits that explain the social behavior of the individual. But since the social character is inextricably linked with the society that forms it, it is necessary to carefully consider the concepts that describe modern society, in particular the concepts of the post-industrial and information society.
Thanatophilia (from the Greek "thanatos" - death) is a term introduced by E. Fromm to denote the orientation of a person towards self-destructive behavior, literally, a subconscious desire for death.
By studying the characteristics of the character of a particular person, it is possible to identify what qualities characterize a person. At the heart of their manifestation are the influence of individual experience, knowledge, abilities and capabilities of people. List biological features includes innate human characteristics. Other personality traits acquired as a result of life:
- sociality
It means irreducibility to individual, biological characteristics of people, saturation with socio-cultural content.
- Uniqueness
The uniqueness and originality of the inner world of an individual, his independence and the inability to attribute to one or another social or psychological type.
- transcendence
Willingness to go beyond one's "limits", constant self-improvement as a way of being, belief in the possibility of development and overcoming external and internal obstacles on the way to one's goal and, as a result, incompleteness, inconsistency and problematicness.
- Integrity and subjectivity
Internal unity and identity (equality to oneself) in any life situations.
- Activity and subjectivity
The ability to change oneself and the conditions of one's existence, independence from the surrounding conditions, the ability to be a source of one's own activity, the cause of actions and the recognition of responsibility for the actions performed.
- Moral
The basis of interaction with the outside world, the willingness to treat other people as the highest value, equivalent to one's own, and not as a means to achieve goals.
List of qualities
The personality structure includes temperament, volitional qualities, abilities, character, emotions, social attitudes and motivation. And also separately the following qualities:
- Independence;
- Intellectual self-improvement;
- Communication;
- Kindness;
- industriousness;
- Honesty;
- Purposefulness;
- Responsibility;
- Respect;
- Confidence;
- Discipline;
- Humanity;
- Mercy;
- Curiosity;
- Objectivity.
The personal qualities of a person are internal perception and external manifestations. External manifestation includes a list of indicators:
- congenital or acquired artistry;
- attractive appearance and sense of style;
- ability and distinct pronunciation of speech;
- intelligent and sophisticated approach to .
The main qualities of a person (her inner world) can be classified according to a number of criteria:
- a comprehensive assessment of the situation and the absence of conflicting perceptions of information;
- inherent love for people;
- unbiased thinking;
- positive form of perception;
- wise judgment.
The level of these indicators determines individual characteristics being studied.
The structure of individual qualities
For more exact definition qualities of a person's personality, it is necessary to highlight his biological structure. It consists of 4 levels:
- Temperament, including characteristics of genetic predisposition (nervous system).
- The degree of unique mental processes that allows you to determine the personal qualities of a person. The result is influenced by the level of individual perception, imagination, manifestation volitional signs, feelings and attention.
- The experience of people, characterized by knowledge, abilities, capabilities and habits.
- Indicators of social orientation, including the attitude of the subject to the external environment. Development personal qualities acts as a guiding and regulating factor in behavior - interests and attitudes, beliefs and attitudes (a state of consciousness based on previous experience, a regulatory attitude and), moral norms.
Features of people that characterize their temperament
The innate qualities of a person form him as a social being. Behavioral factors, type of activity and social circle are taken into account. The category is shared by 4 concepts: sanguine, melancholic, choleric and phlegmatic.
- Sanguine - easily adapting to a new habitat and overcoming obstacles. Sociability, responsiveness, openness, cheerfulness and leadership are the main personality traits.
- Melancholic - weak and inactive. Under the influence of strong stimuli, behavioral disturbances occur, manifested by a passive attitude to any activity. Closure, pessimism, anxiety, a tendency to reason and touchiness - character traits melancholic.
- Cholerics are strong, unbalanced, energetic personality traits. They are short-tempered and unrestrained. Resentment, impulsiveness, emotionality and instability are clear indicators of a restless temperament.
- Phlegmatic - a balanced, inert and slow personality, not inclined to change. Personal indicators act in easy overcoming of negative factors. Reliability, goodwill, peacefulness and prudence - distinctive features calm people.
Individual character traits
Character is a set of traits of an individual, which are manifested in different types activities, communication and relationships with people. The development of personal qualities is formed against the background of life processes and the type of activity of people. For a more accurate assessment of the nature of people, behavioral factors in specific circumstances should be studied in detail.
Varieties of character:
- cycloid - changeability of mood;
- hyperthymic accentuation consists in high activity, failure to complete things;
- asthenic - capricious and depressive personal qualities;
- sensitive - timid personality;
- hysterical - the makings of leadership and vanity;
- distimic - focused on the negative side of current events.
Individual abilities of people
Individual psychological qualities individuals contribute to the achievement of success and excellence in certain activities. They are determined by the social and historical practice of the individual, the results of the interactions of biological and mental indicators.
There are different skill levels:
- giftedness;
- talent;
- genius.
The development of the algorithm of personal qualities and abilities of people is characterized by the ability to learn new things in the mental sphere. Special features are manifested in a specific type of activity (musical, artistic, pedagogical, etc.).
Volitional traits of people
Adjustment of behavioral factors associated with overcoming internal and external discomfort makes it possible to determine personal qualities: the level of efforts and plans for taking actions, concentration in a given direction. Will manifests itself in the following properties:
- - the level of effort to achieve the desired result;
- perseverance - the ability to mobilize to overcome troubles;
- endurance is the ability to limit feelings, thoughts and actions.
Courage, self-control, commitment are the personal qualities of strong-willed people. They are classified into simple and complex acts. In a simple case, urges to action flow into its execution automatically. Complex acts are carried out on the basis of drawing up a plan and taking into account the consequences.
human feelings
The persistent attitude of people to real or imaginary objects arise and are formed on the basis of the cultural and historical level. Only the ways of their manifestation, based on historical epochs, change. are individual.
Personality motivations
Motives and motivations that contribute to the activation of actions are formed from. The stimulating qualities of a person are conscious and unconscious.
They appear as:
- striving for success;
- avoiding trouble;
- getting power, etc.
How to manifest and how to recognize personality traits
The personal qualities of an individual are determined by analyzing behavioral factors:
- self-esteem. manifest themselves in relation to themselves: modest or confident, arrogant and self-critical, decisive and brave, people with high level self-control or lack of will;
- assessment of the relationship of the individual to society. There are different degrees of relationships between the subject and representatives of society: honest and fair, sociable and polite, tactful, rude, etc.;
- a unique personality is determined by the level of interests in the labor, educational, sports or creative field;
- elucidation of the position of the individual in society occurs in close relationship opinions about her;
- when studying psychological factors, Special attention given to memory, thinking and attention, characterizing the development of personal qualities;
- observation of the emotional perception of situations allows you to assess the reaction of the individual when solving problems or its absence;
- measuring the level of responsibility. The main qualities of a serious personality are manifested in labor activity in the form of creativity, entrepreneurship, initiative and bringing things to the desired result.
A review of the individual properties of people helps to create a general picture of behavior in the professional and social sphere. Under the concept of "personality" is a person with individual properties, due to the social environment. These include personality traits: intelligence, emotions and will.
Grouping features that contribute to personality recognition:
- subjects who are aware of the presence of their inherent social traits;
- people participating in the social and cultural life of society;
- personal qualities and character of a person can be easily determined in social connection through communication and work;
- individuals who are clearly aware of their peculiarity and significance in the public.
Personal and professional qualities of a person are manifested in the formation of a worldview and internal perception. The individual always asks philosophical questions about life, his significance in society. He has his own ideas, views and life positions that influence